Blacks were apart of the theater for years but some records are hard to discover because hardly any of it was recorded in standard histories. Many slaves that were on slaveships were forced to sing and dance as entertainment for the crew. However, in the past 10 years Afro-Americans have been getting more recognition. The lives of black people were being portrayed in musicals instead of "hand-me-down white musicals", as well as black theaters being offered many colleges.
There have been many representation of black actors in plays. For example, the first black male actor was in the play The Padlock portraying a West Indian slave named Mungo. Even though he had a part it wasn't a very good one. He was play a clown and not one of the happy clowns, either. Before the 1776 blacks were being portrayed in a negative light. Since then, there have been many black males apart of the performing arts. For example, James Weldon Johnson was an excellent songwriter, author, professor, and field secretary in the NAACP. In the end black performers sung and danced as the white males thought "they could do best".
African Americans were originators behind the "Minstrelsy" and was eventually taken to the American stage by Edwin Forrest, who was the first one to start black face on stage. It focused on song, dance, and humor of humble black characters around 1840. By 1828, black face-performers were touring the country. Black minstrel companies were flourishing for a while before the white business took over the bigger companies and them out of business.
The Harlem Renaissance was the period where black musicals were still very popular on Broadway stages. The Crescent Theater was one of the first theaters to open in Harlem in 1909. Lafayette Theater was another popular black theater. In April 1917, the play Three Plays for a Negro Theater was the first time a white writer wrote plays with the undeveloped potentialities of the black lifestyle.
The black theater had gone through many phases and changes by the seventies. For, example, the musicals were very popular in the sixties and seventies then in the fifties. Black theaters in America have to be both "self-supported and community-supported" in order "to survive".
I believe Fires in the Mirror is a black theater play because it talks about the issues black communities are facing with discrimination, even though it mentions Jewish discrimination as well. I believe it also use some the black stereotypes, such as baggy clothing and drug use. Even with the stereotypes it gives the reader an insight of what happens to a black community when the authorities are involved. They are still ignored and beaten for standing up for what they believe in. To me black theaters are sometimes not only the retelling of the hardships African-Americans went through, but also the continuation of it.
There have been many representation of black actors in plays. For example, the first black male actor was in the play The Padlock portraying a West Indian slave named Mungo. Even though he had a part it wasn't a very good one. He was play a clown and not one of the happy clowns, either. Before the 1776 blacks were being portrayed in a negative light. Since then, there have been many black males apart of the performing arts. For example, James Weldon Johnson was an excellent songwriter, author, professor, and field secretary in the NAACP. In the end black performers sung and danced as the white males thought "they could do best".
African Americans were originators behind the "Minstrelsy" and was eventually taken to the American stage by Edwin Forrest, who was the first one to start black face on stage. It focused on song, dance, and humor of humble black characters around 1840. By 1828, black face-performers were touring the country. Black minstrel companies were flourishing for a while before the white business took over the bigger companies and them out of business.
The Harlem Renaissance was the period where black musicals were still very popular on Broadway stages. The Crescent Theater was one of the first theaters to open in Harlem in 1909. Lafayette Theater was another popular black theater. In April 1917, the play Three Plays for a Negro Theater was the first time a white writer wrote plays with the undeveloped potentialities of the black lifestyle.
The black theater had gone through many phases and changes by the seventies. For, example, the musicals were very popular in the sixties and seventies then in the fifties. Black theaters in America have to be both "self-supported and community-supported" in order "to survive".
I believe Fires in the Mirror is a black theater play because it talks about the issues black communities are facing with discrimination, even though it mentions Jewish discrimination as well. I believe it also use some the black stereotypes, such as baggy clothing and drug use. Even with the stereotypes it gives the reader an insight of what happens to a black community when the authorities are involved. They are still ignored and beaten for standing up for what they believe in. To me black theaters are sometimes not only the retelling of the hardships African-Americans went through, but also the continuation of it.